All posts tagged Spotify

Apple is known for driving a hard bargain, but, in the case of its forthcoming music service, it’s not seeking a bigger cut of revenue than its rivals.

Apple said it will pay music rights owners about 71.5% of revenue in the U.S. and about 73%, on average, for songs played abroad. That is largely in line with the payments by other music streaming services. Read More »

The attorneys general of New York and Connecticut are investigating whether the deals struck by Apple for its new music service violated antitrust rules.

The joint investigation by the two states into whether the music industry was acting in collusion to restrain competition among stream music services was disclosed in a letter to the New York Attorney General’s office from Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company. The New York attorney general posted the letter on its website. Read More »

At its Worldwide Developers Conference starting Monday, the company is expected to unveil its push to change how people buy and listen to music. Apple aims to counter the slowdown in music downloads – a business it pioneered more than a decade ago with iTunes – with a new subscription-based streaming service and an ad-supported online-radio offering. Read More »

Spotify on Wednesday announced a slew of video content partnerships with major media companies ranging from ESPN to Conde Nast to NBC. But founder and chief executive Daniel Ek spent a large portion of the presentation talking about Spotify’s role as a music-listening medium.

But for many, Spotify is surely a background medium, one typically consumed while they work, commute, or exercise–rather than a lean-back-and-watch medium. So moving into video will require a shift in usage patterns. Read More »

Music-streaming service Spotify says it has 15 million paying users out of a base of 60 million active monthly users – a 25% conversion rate which has remained steady since last May. The company now faces imminent and strategic competition from tech giants Google and Apple. Read More »

A new partnership between Uber and Spotify will let passengers of the ride-sharing service control the music when they get in a car.

Starting Friday in 10 cities around the world, users of Spotify’s $10-a-month premium service will be able to log in to their accounts within the Uber app, the companies said Monday. When those customers hail a car that’s set up to stream music, they will be prompted to select a playlist from their own music library or choose one picked out by Uber. Read More »

When pop star Taylor Swift abruptly withdrew her catalog from Spotify AB this week, she reignited the ongoing debate over how well digital music services pay the artists who make the music they distribute.

But for many songwriters, Spotify is starting to pay more in some markets than Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store. Read More »

Berlin-based audio-streaming service SoundCloud has 175 million unique listeners each month and a valuation north of a half-billion dollars, based on a funding round early this year.

But it’s losing money; raking in only modest revenue and it’s still trying to sign copyright deals with record labels for much of the music it would like to put on its listeners’ devices.

Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Eric Wahlforss says his audio-streaming company is still talking to record labels about licensing deals, while at the same time generating business for artists and advertisers through a revenue sharing program. Read More »